The Origin of Iron Man

The song, not the comic. [Link]

Despite getting little airplay, Sabbath's antiwar album Paranoid reached No. 1 in England, and No. 12 in the United States. "Iron Man," the album's fourth track, is hailed today as one of the greatest and most influential heavy metal tunes of all time. So... does the song have something to do with the superhero?

Many metalheads claim that it does; others insist that it doesn't. For example, see the user-generated content at the website Songfacts: "Do you want to know what this song is really about? It's about Iron Man... as in the comic book character... get the very first issue... the parallels are obvious." -- Eric, Rockford, IL. vs. "The comic Iron Man is a super hero. The song is about a guy that ends up killing the human race because they don't listen to him or help him after he sees the end of the world and is turned to iron. Listen to the damn song!!!" -- Chris, Sacramento, CA. And so forth.

You know what? This is a bona fide literary mystery! If a lowbrow one. And readers, you know that I can't resist a literary mystery.